Saturday, July 6, 2024, Carolyn Davies Lynch

 Saturday Themeless by Carolyn Davies Lynch

I had a nice tour through Carolyn's construction but worked from the bottom up. Carolyn's 100 open squares and only six 3-letter words made for a very engaging grid. I was alert  to a lot of her cluing tricks such as how REF yoose was a noun and not a verb  I didn't get the double meaning of Booties until the very last cell and that was a "palm slap" moment!  

                        

Carolyn is a mother of four and a former CEO of Rocketship Public Schools and lives in San Carlos, CA.

Across:

1. Warby Parker array: FRAMES. You can go to their web site and Click on Home Try-On to try on their lenses virtually as they take your picture and let you see the frames on your face. 

Waddaya think? 

7. Shipping inquiry: TRACER.

13. Wine gadget: AERATOR - What they do

        

15. Flow swiftly: COURSE - Blood COURSING through your veins (and arteries)

16. Like many Basquiat works: UNTITLED.

18. Swahili for "trouble": MATATA - Another palm slap after a few letters!

19. Baby gear that allows safe snuggling: CO-SLEEPER.

21. Booking.com option: MOTEL - Old MOTELS not near an interstate are being torn down like this one on Route 66 not I-44.

22. Some farm ruminants: EWES.

23. Takes steps?: PACES.

25. "In order to be, never try to __": Camus: SEEM - To me it says, "You Do You"

26. Bang-up stuff: TNT.

27. Product with a leprechaun mascot: LUCKY CHARMS - A nice easy fill in the middle of the puzzle.

29. Puts on the spot?: PARKS 😀

30. Privileged ones: HAVES.

31. Booties: RUMPS 😀 - The baby footwear was locked into my brain and I laughed out loud when I got the joke. Crossing RAMAYANA was no help!

32. Did a cobbler's job: SOLED - Shoed? Not so much.

33. Figure on Sweden's 100-krona note ($9.42): GARBO - Greta eventually made sense. Other Swedish icons on their currency

34. Chastise: SCOLD.

35. Refuse to help in the garden?: COMPOST PILE  😀- "REF yooss" not "ree FYOOZ"!

37. Soak (up): SOP.

40. Make sound: HEAL - Sound is used as an adjective here

Faith healer?

41. Water choice: EVIAN.

42. "Wipeout" host John: CENA.

43. So far: AS YET.

45. Great heights: ALTITUDES - The highest ALTITUDES on Everest have an ominous name

47. Brought down the house: SLAYED - A comedian's "tongue-in-cheek" goal

Rodney Dangerfield "slaying"
Johnny Carson

49. Least likely to pop open: TIGHTEST.

50. French endearment: MON AMI - Close enough...

51. "Toodles": CHEERIO - This British farewell predates the American cereal by many years

52. Boggy: SWAMPY.

53. Less likely to ramble: TERSER - The other speaker at Gettysburg was orator Edward Everett and he said of Lincoln's speech, "I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."

Down:

1. Moen product: FAUCET.

2. Celebrity: RENOWN.

3. Creative gift: ART SET - I was content with my box of Crayola Crayons

4. Posts: MAILS - One posts a letter in England

5. Extension that makes something smaller?: ETTE.

6. Raison d'être: SOLE PURPOSE.

7. Old film channel: TCM - Turner Classic Movies recaptures Hollywood's Golden Era

8. Freedom to __: rights of public access: ROAM 

9. Routinely insured against a crash: AUTO SAVED 😀 A computer crash not a financial one.

10. Collapsed dramatically: CRATERED.

11. Prizes: ESTEEMS - The verb not the noun

12. Domains: REALMS.

14. Prepares to go home: REPACKS - On the last January night of our field trip in Orlando, 100+ kids had to do this to go back home to winter in Nebraska.

17. Sets of slides: DECKS - A slide is a single page of a presentation. Collectively, a group of slides may be known as a slide deck.

20. "Video Games" singer Lana Del __: REY.

24. Time to enforce bedtime: SCHOOL NIGHT.

27. Italian ride, casually: LAMBO.

28. "The Little Mermaid" star Bailey: HALLE - Not HALLE Berry 

29. Dessert ingredient also called ube: PURPLE YAM.

31. One of the two major Sanskrit epics in Hinduism: RAMAYANA - 🤔

32. __ nerve: SCIATIC - Starts up near your rump/bootie

33. Is underhanded: GOES LOW.

34. All over the lino, perhaps: SPILT

35. Deep fissures: CHASMS.

36. FDR power project: TVA - Harry Truman dedicates the huge TVA Kentucky Dam in 1944. He said “It is common sense hitched up to modern science and good management. And that’s about all there is to it.” TERSER than most politicians. 

37. Meals that tell a story of liberation: SEDERS - The SEDER plate

38. Bodysuit: ONESIE.

39. Tacos al __: PASTOR - "Shepherd style"

42. More likely to win the annual Gerber Photo Search, perhaps: CUTER.

The original Gerber baby
Ann Turner Smith
in 1928 and 90 years later

44. Forecast no.: TEMP - Daily high TEMPS for Omaha in 1936, the heart of the "dirty 30's"

46. You, once: THEE - I'm betting there is a large number of peeps in our  group who can recite most or all of this lovely poem.

48. Like some reno projects: DIY - Hmmm...

Notes from C.C.:

Happy 77th birthday to dear waseeley (Bill), our faithful and caring Sherpa on Thursdays. Hope you and Teri are having a great time in Ohio, Bill. 

 

 

 

Monday November 27, 2023 Carolyn Davies Lynch

  

Hello Cornerites!

sumdaze here with with more food for thought -- just when you were finally finishing up those Thanksgiving leftovers! "What's today's theme?" you ask. You're such a clever bunch, I'm sure...

Constructor Carolyn Davies Lynch gives us three parlor games with fruity names:

20 Across. Game whose cards have images of red and green fruit: APPLES TO APPLES.

28 Across. Game whose tiles are stored in a fruit-shaped bag: BANANAGRAMS.

44 Across. Game in which players compete to collect plastic fruit: HI-HO! CHERRY-O.

Are you familiar with these games?
The first one is new to me,
I often play the second one with DH (more fun than waiting for your turn at Scrabble),
and I have not thought about the third one for many, many years.

The reveal:

51. What I shouldn't do at the dinner table, except in 20-, 28-, and 44-Across?: PLAY WITH MY FOOD.

Cute! Those are all FOOD-themed (specifically, fruit-themed) games one can PLAY WITH on a dinner table...or on a coffee table...or on the floor....

Grape job, Carolyn! Also, this ap-pears to be your LA Times debut. Congratulations!

Now, orange you ready for the other clues?

Across:
1. "High Voltage" rock band: AC🗲DC.  We're starting off with a jolt!

This Australian group released their High Voltage album internationally in 1976. Track#1 is It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll). That shrill sound you hear is rocker Bon Scott (1946 - 1980) playing the bagpipes.  

5. Frozen drink brand: ICEE.  

9. Revolving entryway: STILE.  

14. "Heck no": UH UH.  Nope. Not happening. Hard pass.

15. Humpty Dumpty's perch: WALL.

16. Alleviates: EASES.

17. Freddie Mercury portrayer Malek: RAMI.  

RAMI is on the right.
He won the Best Actor Oscar in 2019 for his work in Bohemian Rhapsody.

18. Sleeve fillers: ARMS.  Cute. Not the clear plastic sleeves that go in a  binder.

19. Assists in a crime: ABETS.

23. "If u ask me": IMHO.  In My Humble Opinion, the "u" is a hint that it will be a textspeak answer.

24. Falsehood: LIE.

25. Folklore figure: ELF.

34. Concealed via sleight of hand: PALMED.   and   5 Down. "They tricked me!": I WAS HAD.

"Palming" is a technique for holding or concealing an object in the hand. It is used frequently by magicians to conceal a card, coin, or other object. This 2 min. video shows how it's done:  

36. Bled in the wash: RAN.   and   61 Across. Puts laundry into piles, say: SORTS.

Color bleeding occurs when dyes from one fabric transfer onto another during the washing process. We say, "The color RAN." This can happen due to various factors, such as the fabric's dye quality, water temperature, agitation, or improper SORTing.  

the culprit

37. Tied, as a score: EVEN.

38. "We're live!" studio sign: ON AIR.

39. Dad, or soda: POP.  CSO to -T's father!

40. Yogurt-based condiment: RAITA.  Here is Swasthi's 5-star recipe.

41. Mama of music: CASS.  Cass Elliot was born in 1941 in Baltimore, MD (Hi waseeley!). She is perhaps best known as one of four members of the late 1960s pop group sensation, The Mamas and the Papas. Sadly, she died of heart failure at the young age of 32.

This song seems like a good fit for today.  

42. U.S. spy org.: CIA.   and   43. Cease communication: GO DARK.

Here is an article on spy fiction tropes.

47. Once named: NÉE.  Pronounced "nay", English borrowed this adjective from the French (feminine) word for "born".

48. "The Raven" poet Edgar Allan __: POE.  

49. Actress Watson: EMMA.  her IMDb page

She is 33 years old now
but I still think of her as "the girl from Harry Potter.

58. Mickey or Minnie: MOUSE.

59. Base x height, for a parallelogram: AREA.  Perhaps you are thinking, "Isn't that like the formula for the area of a rectangle?" Yes! That's correct! If you take a pair of scissors and snip along the dotted line then move that piece to the other side, you will make a rectangle without adding any new area or taking any area away. Their areas are the same so you can use the same formula.  #MathIsSoCool

60. Big brass horn: TUBA.  

62. Pork or beef: MEAT.  Have you heard of uglitarians? They only eat the "ugly" animals. OUCH! I guess beauty is in the eye of the diner.

63. Supply-and-demand subj.: ECON.  "Subject" is shortened, so is "ECONomics".

Shortening the supply of letters creates a demand for more mental agility.

64. Kiss on both cheeks, perhaps: GREET.

I suspect this is a pre-covid map.

65. Sinks out of sight, as the sun: SETS.  

Sunrise, Sunset

from Fiddler on the Roof (original motion picture soundtrack, 1971)

66. "Better Call Saul" actress Seehorn: RHEA.  Her fans will be happy to know that Vince Gilligan (the creator of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul) is currently working on a new series. It will be very different from those, but it is set in Albuquerque and features RHEA in a leading role.  more gouge

Down:
1. New Age-y emanation: AURA.  

2. "I say, old __": CHAP.   

3. Trash destination: DUMP.

4. Five-alarm potful: CHILI.

6. Container for eggs: CARTON.  The cardboard-y ones are great for starting your seeds indoors while you wait for the ground to warm up.  

7. Ticklish Muppet: ELMO.   and   8 Down. Anna's "Frozen" sister: ELSA.  

Here are ELMO & ELSA. We're just missing 49-A EMMA.

9. Common name for a deep-ocean cucumber: SEA PIG.  "Larry" did not fit so this one was ESP for me. The first three letters seemed logical but PIG was unexpected. Here's a video:   

10. Early run-through of a script: TABLE READ.  In film and theater, this is an organized reading of a script in which the speaking parts, stage directions, and scene headings are read out loud. more from MasterClass

11. "Makes sense": I SEE.  ...said the blind man to his deaf dog.

12. "Why don't we?": LET'S.  

13. Squiggly letter: ESS.

21. Glowing coal: EMBER.  This link will take you to my favorite YouTube fireplace video. It has cracking logs, rain pitter-patter, and smooth jazz. If you worked last Saturday's puzzle, you might call this video an ASMRtist (40-Across). Let it play in the background while you cozy up with an afghan, a cuppa, and a book. 

22. Schedule: PLAN.

25. Geologic time: EPOCH.  

Scientists are now debating the beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch.

26. Hawaiian patio: LANAI.  Earlier this month, Hahtoolah gave us this helpful link. I will add that Hawaiians also call a balcony a LANAI.

27. Brief bright light: FLASH.  

Speaking of 17-A Freddy Mercury, in 1980 Queen released their Flash Gordon soundtrack.

29. Superloud: AROAR.

30. Forty winks: NAP.

31. Bird-related: AVIAN.  Also, sheep-related is "ovine" and cattle-related is "bovine".

32. British unit of length: METRE.  Hi CanadianEh!

Carolyn also used the British spelling.

33. Slithering reptile: SNAKE.  

35. Soup base made from fermented soybeans: MISO PASTE.  

Miso Soup is part of a typical Japanese breakfast.
おいしいです  (It's delicious!)

39. Fruit-filled dessert: PIE.  

Remember when Marshall (How I Met Your Mother)
made a PIE chart of his favorite bars and a bar graph of his favorite pies?

40. Like baggy pants: ROOMY.  My mind went to "Hammer pants", previously known as "harem pants" or "parachute pants".  

M.C. Hammer  U Can't Touch This (1990)

42. __ necklace: jewelry that provides soothing oral sensory input: CHEW.  At first I thought, "Huh?", but then I remembered that in the past I have bought these necklaces as gifts for new moms. Today I learned that they can be therapeutic for people of all ages.  Blog about Chewelry

Babies like to grab necklaces and put them in their mouths,
so why not make something that is good for teething and also fashionable? Brilliant!

43. Soft spots for tumblers: GYM MATS.  

45. Most demure: COYEST.  "COY" is an adjective that describes someone who is making a pretense of shyness or modesty with the intention of being alluring.

46. Pop in the microwave, perhaps: REHEAT.  Not a 39-A "Pop".

50. "Repeat __ me": AFTER.

51. Like a one-star review: POOR.  In 1877, The Odessa Courier published this POOR review of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina:

"Sentimental rubbish.... Show me one page that contains an idea."

Hah! Shows what reviewers know. Oh, wait, I'm a reviewer....

52. Plastic worm, e.g.: LURE.  fishing tackle

53. Healthy Kitten brand: IAMS.  

54. Walnut or chestnut: TREE.

55. "You wound me!": OUCH.

56. Double-reed woodwind: OBOE.

57. "The X-Files" agent Scully: DANA.  The X-Files is an American sci-fi TV series that aired on the FOX network in 1993-2002, 2016, and 2018. The show attracted a huge cult following. Gillian won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for her portrayal of an FBI agent investigating paranormal occurrences.

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as Fox Mulder and DANA Scully.

58. Flavor enhancer, for short: MSG.  MonoSodium Glutamate 

what the Mayo Clinic says about MSG

And now, for a berry special grid:

I apple-solutely hope you will share your thoughts below!